Silver Ring with Steam Locomotive Relief, Ami Inger M Andersson Atelje, Sweden, 1979
Silver Ring with Steam Locomotive Relief, Ami Inger M Andersson Atelje, Sweden, 1979
A Swedish silver ring from 1979 featuring a carefully executed relief of an early steam locomotive in profile.
The ring was made by Ami Inger M Andersson Atelje in 925 silver. Its circular front depicts a steam locomotive with a tall chimney, visible smoke, large driving wheels and coupling rods. A twisted silver border surrounds the motif and gives the front a medallion-like form.
The locomotive design refers to the early Swedish steam era and the industrial imagery that developed around the expansion of the railway during the 19th century. Its tall chimney, large driving wheels and clearly defined mechanical profile reflect the visual language of the first generations of locomotives.
Sweden’s first steam locomotive, Förstlingen, was manufactured in Eskilstuna in 1853 by Johan Theofron Munktell. The first Swedish locomotive-hauled railway lines opened in 1856, with Örebro–Nora officially recognised as the first. The locomotive represented on the ring resembles the type that came to symbolise the earliest period of Swedish railway history.
The subject gives the ring particular collector interest for those drawn to Swedish railway history, industrial motifs and personal commissioned jewellery from 20th-century silversmithing. One possible background is that the ring was commissioned for a railway club or professional association. Railway societies were active in Sweden during the 1970s, and such organisations occasionally commissioned silver jewellery from local workshops for their members.
The steam locomotive may equally have been an independent artistic choice by Ami Inger M Andersson, without reference to a specific anniversary. Ami Inger M Andersson Atelje was a Swedish silversmithing workshop using the maker’s mark AMI. The marks AMI, the Swedish cat’s-paw control mark with three crowns, 925 and E10 identify Swedish manufacture, a silver fineness of 925/1000 and the year 1979.
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